A voice like none other

[Hachiko]

Though many postmodern jazz musicians are tireless experimentalists, they often end up producing interesting concepts more than good music. Pianist, composer and band leader Hiroshi Minami, however, is that rare jazz musician who sets up intriguing musical challenges that feel natural. He plays an engaging postmodern style that achieves that elusive jazz ideal -- an authentic voice all of its own.


Pianist Hiroshi Minami

Last year's release, "Celestial Inside," found Minami and his Go There quartet at ease in their own brand of exuberant postmodern jazz. As on his other recordings over the last 10 years, Minami's way of positioning concepts, compositions and musicians yields a very creative friction and intriguing jazz.

Though he plays regularly in Tokyo's many jazz clubs, Minami's restless attitude led him to work on remixes of several of the tracks from "Celestial Inside" with synthesized sounds, overdubbed rhythm tracks and DJ collaborations. He also began performing outside the often trad-minded jazz world, bringing his group to play on bills with other edgy, postmodern "jazz" groups around Tokyo.

Minami has also explored the world outside Japan. After earning diplomas from Tokyo College of Music and Boston's Berklee College of Music, he settled in Tokyo, but kept an ear turned toward Europe. Minami has often traveled there to collaborate with musician friends in Germany and Denmark, inviting them here just as often. As a regular member of Danish trumpeter Kasper Tranberg's group, he travels across the globe to jam in the vibrant Copenhagen jazz scene. Most recently, he has played and recorded with Cuban powerhouses: drummer Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez and bassist Carlos del Puerto (of Irakere fame). Hernandez and del Puerto are two of the most sought-after session musicians in New York and in their native Havana. This newest project, though, isn't Latin jazz, but a recording of Minami's originals, mainly ballads, which he wrote for their first-time trio and a string ensemble. The CD will be released in September.

Minami recently took time between sets at a gig at the Shinjuku Pit Inn, and later by e-mail and phone, to talk about the many hats he so comfortably wears.

Japan Times